


This Forest Primeval

by Adeline_Hatter



Category: The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
Genre: Curse-Verses, F/M, Gen, I don't want to spoil things in the tags, Multi, Once Upon A Time AU, Spoilers for book 4
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 11:26:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12704070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Hatter/pseuds/Adeline_Hatter
Summary: Once Upon A Time an Evil King placed a curse on the world of fairytales, sending characters we know and love to a world he believed would hold no Happy Endings for them….Also know as our world…..





	This Forest Primeval

_ The hand on her waist is warm, firm, calloused but comfortable, his hands always seemed to fit like a puzzle piece into her curves it was a wonder she ignored it back at sixteen. Back when she’d first landed in that moat, but she’d been cold, afraid and without her best friend.  _

 

_ “May I have this dance?” She murmurs as her students dance with a quick two-step around them, his grip tightens just a bit to pull her further in next to him. Disbelief always dipped in his smile when he looked at her like this, but it’s softer than it was a year ago.  _

 

_ He didn’t answer her question just pulled her close to stick his face in the space between her neck and head, he placed a kiss there and she sighed happily, “I love you.” He murmured just as quiet, before pulling away to pull her out onto the dance floor, “And I love dancing with you.”  _

 

_ So she laughed at him, the warmth radiating from her heart feeling her bones so easily, her smile gets so gooey around him. She wants to dance with him forever like this, she tilts her head at him and lets herself be spun into a waltz.  _

 

_ Then the building starts to shake and her world starts to fall apart, the black plumes of smoke come out of nowhere. She finds herself pressed to him almost immediately, protecting her from the threat so easily that she wishes he wouldn’t.  _

 

_ A beat and the warmth is gone, her heels trip on something and there’s a window and a man that she both knows and doesn’t….  _

 

_ His hands flash out and she goes through the window, she’s falling blonde hair escaping from the bun to float up around her as her eyes grow wide in terror, she’s fallen from this sort of tower before but there’s no Princess down there to save her this time.  _

 

_ Her lips open and she starts to scream but not before she hears it, not before the black smoke swallows her whole.  _

 

“SOPHIE-” 

* * *

  
  
  


She starts awake, she always does after those sorts of nightmares. 

 

Her apartment was cool to the touch at this time of year, always was. Always would be, there was never any doubt over the matter, her dream is forgotten in moments as it usually is in the mornings.

 

Philippa Queen sighed quietly as she slowly pulled her warm body from the covers of her bed, shivering as her feet padded across the wooden floors of the tiny place, she knew she still had a week to pay her heating bill so her Landlord had explaining to do. 

 

She swooped a blonde curl from her face and wondered from her bedroom, taking the leaping steps into the bathroom turning on the shower, she pulled her pajamas off and shivered a little more before climbing into the only just warm water. 

 

_ Fuck this apartment.  _

 

She could vaguely dream about what her next one would look like, preferably somewhere like New York or Los Angeles anywhere would be better than Gavaldon, Philippa would even let someone kidnap her if it guaranteed a way out of this sorry excuse for a town. 

 

That being said, her waitressing job only paid so much, even the little bit of extra work she did on the side for the Bar she worked her second job at did nothing but cause her trouble. 

 

She pulled herself from the shower and padded back into her room, her roommate apparently still blissfully asleep. She did have to wake up earlier than he did after all, and he was never around during the daytime either. 

 

That was a blessing in disguise really, the man reminded her of a large puppy the few times she had interacted with him, he was taller than her by at least a head even when she wore heels. His name was Horatio, a history teacher at the local school but he also loved to study amphibians. 

 

That being said he was definitely an easy person to live with and an even easier person to look at. Dark hair and thighs that had made her swoon not that she’d admit that out loud, not to mention the one time she’d seen his abs….. 

 

_ You cannot be swooning over Ho- _

 

Philippa blow dried her blonde princess curls before grabbing her creams off the vanity, turning on her space heater feeling the heat curl through her bones. Taking the slight ache out of them, her emerald green eyes looked more tired these days she smoothed the eye gel underneath them before tilting her head to the side and testing out a bright smile. 

 

She couldn’t believe that no modelling company had wanted her face and body on their list, she’d sent so many applications out to them but nothing ever came of them. 

 

It was almost as if no one cared. 

 

And she knew they would. 

 

She was Philippa fucking Queen. 

 

She could do anything. 

 

_ You will always be my Queen.  _

* * *

  
  


“You’re late.” Her boss begins the moment she walks in the door of Peggy’s Cafe, the floor on top of the most well-known Bar in town, and Lamia Brimstone stood taller than Philippa by at least two heads, she wore boots flat, black with red laces, ripped skinny jeans and seriously outdated band t-shirts covered by netting, “Again.” 

 

“Save it, I couldn’t find my keys this morning.” 

 

“Liar you were working on your hair and Makeup, I know you, Phil.” Her black hair was tied back in a sleek ponytail today, she shouldn’t wear it like that but Philippa doesn’t mention the fact it brings out her large nose more, not to mention her bug eyes, “And your awful narcissistic habits.” Only the red streak was left free.

 

She shrugs, “So I want to look good, what’s wrong with that?” 

 

“Everything, talk about conforming to social stereotypes about blondes.” A roll of the eyes before an apron was thrown across the room, and she barely caught it, “Get to work, Peg needs you up here for a couple of hours but the moment the clock strikes one thirty get down to the bar, the heavy drinkers will start arriving.” 

 

With that Lamia disappeared down the stairs to the basement, “ _ Talk about conforming to social stereotypes about blondes!”  _ She mimicked in a slightly deeper voice, “Honestly I know she’s my boss, but where does she get off on saying things like that… Not to mention she  _ knows  _ I hate being called Phil.” 

 

“Don’t mind Lamia Pippa.” The sweetly toned British accented laced voice spoke to her left, Margaret ‘Peggy’ Bay smiled, tying an almost identical apron around her waist to the one Philippa held in her hands, short and pear-shaped Peggy was pretty with tawny brown skin and chocolate like hair, “You know at this point it’s all bite because of the break up.” 

 

It was scary how disarming this woman could be within seconds, she’d watched Peggy break up fist fights down in the bar just by starting to cry and escort rude customers to the curb. Especially when they got a little too over excited with the staff. 

 

“Break up? That happened months ago! Not to mention the fact that she only ever seems to do it to me.” Her point was valid and she knew it! So what if she liked to wear designer clothes sometimes or spend a little time on herself in the mornings, “What about Piper? Or the ever more obvious choice Nicole!” 

 

Chocolate brown eyes started to glare hard at her with the mention of the last name, “Nicole is off at her volunteering at the hospital and you know that, as for Piper…” She pressed her lips together, “Well Piper and Lamia have a special arrangement.” 

 

“Oh, it’s a  _ special arrangement  _ alright.” 

 

“Pippa!  Lighten up! Come on I’ll make you a hot chocolate, oh I have some freshly baked chocolate muffins too-” 

 

“Peggy you know I’m-” 

 

But Peggy just smiled, “Please, I made a batch of Gluten Free ones too.” 

 

“-Bless you, make that Hot Chocolate a Mocha and you have yourself a deal.”

* * *

 

  
  


_ It happens in a blur.  _

 

_ A golden knight once a King atop his castle and his future Queen and True love by his side, before the chess pieces flocked and knocked him from his perch.  _

 

_ The Future Queen watches as he falls apart and can do nothing for him as the curse comes, her blue dresses merges with the black smoke and she can smell the magic in it, far away she thinks she hears a shot of her sister’s name…..  _

 

_ All she sees is him now, seemingly cracking at the seams but she can’t touch him, she’s frozen as black fills her vision and air becomes tighter in her lungs.  _

 

_ She can feel sleep starting to welcome her without reprieve.  _

* * *

  
  


He’s always hated hospitals, it’s a true fact… So why does he volunteer at a place he hates? He can remember his Father dying in a hospital bed from Cancer, too young to understand really what was going on… Just knowing that he was powerless to stop it. 

 

Theodore Reed was first and foremost a man who had never once left his hometown, he couldn’t. Even as his childhood home was repossessed by the bank and he’d had to move in with his friend Charles who had welcomed the company after his girlfriend had left him, in short anyone who knew Theodore would say he’d sort of failed in life. 

 

Hell, he was a  _ High School Gym Teacher.  _

Not only that but a teacher at his old school, which immediately made everything worse… 

 

But besides that… Why did he volunteer at the hospital? An age-old question that he kept forgetting the answer to, but then he sees her and remembers why. 

 

Or at least he believes she goes by ‘Her’ the only evidence is the fact that she’s classified as ‘Jane Doe’ a coma patient who lay there with the light echoing off her like a halo, she’s the only reason he takes the job of putting fresh flowers in the Coma Ward, roses. He saves the prettiest one for her. 

 

Her black hair is long and plaited across her shoulder easily to keep it out of the way of doctors who came to check on her, her skin is porcelain and her nose is just a little big for her rounded face, her fingers are long and thin… 

 

Even with just a look at her, she seems so familiar to him, someone has painted her fingernails a pretty soft blue. The colour suits her well, she’s absolutely stunning like this. 

 

What on earth had happened to cause such a pretty woman to be left like this- 

 

“Oh hey, Theodore.” He turns to face Nicole Pennings, a petite young woman who worked in the cafe downtown, her dark hair was down today it would seem, her smile pleasant as always, “I was just going in to do her hair for today, I stopped by and did her nails before I did everyone else's.” True to form a cosmetics box hangs in her hands, “Are you putting the flowers out?” 

 

He blinks shifting his focus away from Jane Doe to face her properly, “Yeah.” He murmurs, “I thought I’d do it now rather than later since it’s the weekend.” 

 

She smiles brighter, brown eyes lightening up a bit more, “Well I’m sure they all appreciate it.” 

 

“Maybe they do-” His phone goes off and a nurse shoots him a sharp glare immediately, “-Sorry!” He calls quietly before answering it, “What is it?” 

 

The drawling voice on the other end is one he hates hearing but has to either way, “ _ Hey dipshit where the fuck are you?”  _

 

“Why are you of all people calling me?” 

 

_ “Because it’s either me or Vicky and no one wants to hear her calling you ‘Dore in every third sentence.”  _

 

“Ok fair. But what reason is this call for?” 

 

_ “Fucking hell Reed.”  _ Horatio Lupo is his least favourite person in the whole world, luckily the sentiment is shared, “ _ The parent-teacher meetings are today idiot.”  _

“Don’t call me an idiot.” 

 

_ “I’m only stating the truth.”  _ He could see the smugness on his face, just from his tone.

 

Yeah, he hated his man, “Pretty sure there are rules against swearing on school grounds too.” 

 

“ _ I’m in the Teacher’s Lounge, what do you take me for? Thorn Breath?”  _ A sigh, “ _ Just get your ass over here, Principal Fae is losing her cool.”  _

 

He turned to face Nicole again, “Sorry Nico.” 

 

“No worries, get going.” 

 

“Thank you.” 

* * *

  
  


The Red Demon was named after the tattoo that dominated her neck, which was ironic considering she couldn’t remember how it came to be there. 

 

Every time Lamia tried it felt like a fog echoed over her thoughts and head, she once asked her roommates about it but they’d shrugged. Just as clueless as her it seemed. 

 

Which was odd, because no matter what she and Piper said Peggy was incredibly smart. If anyone remembered how Lamia had come to have her beloveded tattoo it would be her. 

 

A glass shattered somewhere in the bar, “Phil! Clean that up!” An indignant huff from the blonde waitress sounded as she set a tray of drinks on a table full of rowdy patrons, a hand flashing out towards her that she narrowly dodged. 

 

But despite the glare shot her way, her order was obeyed easily and without much complaint. 

 

A thick pounding bass song came on and the entire room seemed to envelope in on itself. 

 

They still had a long night ahead of them, a man with tanned skin and copper hair walked up to the bar, “What can I get you?” She asked pushing the stubborn dyed red piece of hair back behind her ears.

 

“Well a pint for starters, and maybe your Waitress’s phone number?” Lamia cackled as she grabbed a pint glass, “What?” 

 

“Sorry, it’s just a little absurd that you’d want Phil’s number.” His eyebrows rose in question and she elaborated, “She’s not someone you should get involved with romantically, her last boyfriend left town… Not to mention I’m pretty sure she has a thing for her roommate.” 

 

His eyes unnerved her to no end, it was like he knew so much more than he was letting on.

 

“Oh. What a pity, I guess I should go elsewhere then?” 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

She handed over the pint she’d just poured and accepted the money he offered, “Thanks for the pint dearie.” His grin made the fire in her blood leap in her veins. 


End file.
